Argo and crew departed Watergate Marina in Kemah, Texas with plenty of food, water and in good spirits. The sailing was marginal, since the wind was coming directly at us all the way down Galveston Bay. Early on, Otter noticed that the chart was showing a shallow area a few miles ahead of us. He asked the Captain if we should alter course, but the Captain was confident we didn’t need to. Otter and I looked at the chart again, and it we were indeed on a path that would take us into a sandbar, and aground. I immediately changed course to avoid the bar and showed the Captain where we had been headed. The Captain shrugged and agreed. So we sailed on, to the Galveston Channel.

At roughly 12pm, we started the approach to the main channel that exits into the Gulf of Mexico. Having motored the entire way, we were all fairly bored and the lively traffic was interesting and added some excitement to the day. Little did we know just how “exciting” the day would become.

The Galveston Channel is a massive shipping channel that serves the Texas oil and gas industry. It is packed with huge commercial and cruise ships. These ships move at about 10-12 knots through the shipping lanes. Without a current or headwinds, Argo will motor along at 6 knots. This is still much slower than the main traffic, so we stay just outside the main channel, “on the shoulder” so to speak. On this day, we had an opposing current of 4 knots, a 15 knot headwind and 3ft seas. These conditions slowed our pace to roughly 2 knots of forward motion. Our Captain felt it would be ok for us to travel IN the lane however. And not just in the lane, but in the center of the oncoming traffic. So that’s not a good idea, and I objected. As I made my objection, the Captain turned us to Starboard (right) and moved us to the other side of the channel. As he did so, the cruise ship “Carnival Dream” hailed us on the VHF, rather frantically asking, “Sailing vessel Argo! This Carnival Dream, what is your intention! You are crossing our bearing line and you are not moving fast enough to avoid collision! What are your intentions!” At this point, I asked the Captain, “what the fuck are we doing!” With a somewhat dazed look, the Captain responded to the ships on the VHF, “Argo will maintain course and stay between Carnival Dream and the Tanker”. To that, the tanker Captain replied on the VHF, “Sailing vessel Argo! Do you have a death-wish??!!” Once again, I took over. I grabbed the VHF radio, and said “Carnival Dream and Tanker Elf Resolute, Sailing vessel Argo will pass port to port with tanker Elf Resolute and move astern of them once clear”. The tanker and the cruise ship agreed and responded with acknowledgment. They also had to alter their courses so as not to swamp and sink Argo in their wakes. We then passed the tanker and moved out of the channel. All seemed well.

Once we were on the shoulder of the channel, we had a good course to go out the Gulf of Mexico. But, as we motored along, there was a “pop!” and a “whooooooossshhhhh!” from under the cockpit and the engine shut down. I immediately shoved everyone aside, turned the boat around with the momentum and raised all the sails. I put Daniel at the wheel and showed him where to sail and not to change course. Otter and I ran below. Otter headed for the equipment manuals, I headed into the engine compartment. In about five minutes, Otter found the fire suppression system manual and we deduced how it had failed and erroneously deployed. I went back to them helm, sailed us back up the channel and dropped anchor in a safe area. Once anchored, I called a guy I know, back up in Kemah. He, Otter and myself troubleshot the issue and finally got the engine back online. We had dinner, and passed out.

And that was the end of day one.